Whitening and brightening rinse composition for nylon



Patented Nov. 25, 1952 WHITENING AND BRIGH'I'ENING RINSE COMPOSITION FOR NYLON Palmer G. Hendrix, Hickory, N. 0., asslgnor to Pro-Nyl Chemicals, Inc., Salisbury, N. 0., a corporation of North Carolina No Drawing. Application August 21, 1952, Serial No. 305.687

Claims. (Cl. 252-5013) This invention relates to a new textile whitening and brightening rinse composition and is more particularly concerned with a new whitening and brightening rinse composition especially adapted for household use in the rinsing of laundered nylon textile goods, such as stockings and clothing of all kinds, as well as many other manufactured nylon textile goods found in the home.

The undesirable yellowish cast and dull appearance developed in white as well as dyed nylon fabrics over a period of time has really been a veritable bane of the housewifes existence. Even more discouraging to the distraught housewife is the fact that this yellowish or off-white tint is aggravated by continued exposure to light, weathering and continued laundering. Securing and simple bleaching, she has found, simply are not effective.

In an attempt to solve the aforesaid baiiiing problem, the harried housewife for many years has resorted to laundry bluings, containing blue pigments and fugitive blue dyestuffs, to hide this yellowish tinge. She found that she was only fooling herself, for these materials are only temporarily effective to say the least, and are undesirable for other reasons. For instance, in attempting to neutralize" the yellowish tinge with these bluings, a true white is not obtained, but rather, on the other hand, a most disappointing tattletale" gray. Moreover, the more bluing she uses the darker the gray becomes. An exact color balance is never quite effected so that the rinsed material is not even gray, but actually blue. a

In recent years, workers in the art have developed so-called optical bleaching and brightening agents to solve this problem. Actually, these known optical brighteners are not bleaching agents in the true sense of the word because 7 their use is predicated on the fact that they are fluorescent and capable of emitting blue light. Therefore, instead of employing a blue coloring material to absorb yellow light, which is in fact created by blue light being absorbed on the fabric, these new optical brighteners effectively destroy tihileflyellowing effect by emitting the "lost blue As far as is presently known all of the compositions on the open market today employing optical brighteners of the foregoing character are compounded with a soap or other detergent. However, when these brighteners are combined with a soap or detergent, and this can be demonstrated and proven by test data, they have very little effect on nylon. For some unknown reason,

when the brightener is compounded with a soap or detergent, it has very, little if any afflnity for the nylon cloth and will not remain on the cloth.

Various statements in patent or other literature references to the apparent contrary notwithstanding, these optical brighteners and whiteners have never been effectively used in a separate rinse bath for the treatment of nylon. The real reason for this is that, so far as present alleged teachings are concerned, the use of these brightening agents in rinse procedures per se has been limited to the treatment of various textile materials during or just after the manuafcturing stage. This being so, workers in the art have found it necessary to employ high temperatures and/or acids or other chemicals to effect the clinging of the brightening agent to the textile goods. This is particularly true as it concerns the treatment of nylon fabrics.

It is one of the prime objects of the present invention, therefore, to provide a simple whitening and brightening rinse of this general character, in concentrated form, which may be used by the ordinary housewife in a separate rinsing operation by following very simple directions.

It is a further and important object of the invention to provide a concentrated whitening and brightening agent of this character which may be simply added by the housewife to the rinse water in predetermined proportions without the.

use of high temperatures and/or acids.

It is a still further object of the invention to provide a concentrated whitening and brightening rinse composition for household use which has extremely good brightening and whitening effect on nylon fabrics, whether they be dyed or undyed.

The present invention is predicated on the provision of a concentrated whitening and brightening rinse containing three ingredients:

(1) a particular organic optical brightenerfound vastly superior for use in rinsing nylon It has been discovered, in accordance with the present invention, that there is a particular optical whitener and brightener which is extremely effective in its actionon nylon fabrics, so much so that it might be defined as a specific for this purpose. In fact, it has no effect on cotton goods.

3 This particular whitener and brightener is 3,7- dianisoyiamido dibenzothiophenesulfone-2,8-sulfonic acid (or its sodium salt). This particular compound is allegedly soluble in water and while it may be true that some water solubility can be effected, it has been found that it cannot be used in water without the use of acids, high temperatures or other agents, so that in pure aqueous so-,

lution it is not practical for household use. It has been discovered that in order to render this compound eifective for household use, it must be suspended in an aqueous medium containing at least 20% of a simple monohydric alcohol, i. e., in its concentrated form. This alcohol holds the chemical in solution and in suspension so that when the nylon cloth is rinsed in a more dilute suspension (the final rinse bath) the particles of the chemical will adhere to the cloth more uniformly. Should the chemical be used in pure water solution, and this can be shown by experimental data, the adherence of the chemical is very poor and the cloth will blotch and spot and will not be uniform in brightness. Moreover, and what is probably more serious from a practical standpoint, undissolved brown particles would adhere to the fabric in spots leaving undesirable brownish spots or blotches on the fabric.

In the concentrated rinse composition of the present invention the simple monohydric alcohol may be ethyl alcohol, propyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, butyl alcohol, isobutyl alcohol or tertiary butyl alcohol, or any mixture thereof, it being pointed out again that the monohydric alcohol content of the concentrated rinse being at least 20% of the total in the concentrated rinse so that a good suspension may be obtained in the ultimate dilute rinse.

The hygroscopic agent, which is added in small amounts, is preferably a polyhydric alcohol such as glycerine, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, and bu'tylene glycol or a mixture of any of these polyhydric alcohols. The polyhydric alcohol in the composition, bein hygroscopic, helps eliminate the building up of static electricity in the rinsed and dried nylon goods.

The following specific compositions are given by way of illustration:

Example 1 1% ozs. of 3,7-dianisoylamido dibenzothiophenesulfone-2,8-sulfonic acid 3 lbs. of ethyl alcohol 1% ozs. of glycerine Balance water to give a total of 8 lbs.

Example 2 1 56 ozs. of 3,7-dianisoylamido dibenzothiophenesulfone-2,8-sulfonic acid 3 lbs. of tertiary butyl alcohol 1% ozs. of glycerine Balance water to give a total of 8 lbs.

As indicated above, the various monohydric and polyhydric alcohols could be substituted for the ethyl alcohol, tertiary butyl alcohol and glycerine in the foregoing formula. Also, the amounts of ethyl or butyl alcohol could be reduced to about 2 /2 lbs., but not much further, becaus the monohydric alcohol content must be at least 20% of the concentrated rinse suspension. The monohydric alcohol content could be higher, say 40 to 50% but this would be undesirable from an economic standpoint.

The amount of 3,7-dianisoylamido dibenzothiophenesulfone-2.8-sulfonic acid in the concentrated rinse composition can be varied between 0.1% and 6.0%, although best results are obtained when employing 0.5% to 1.5%.

The amount of polyhydric alcohol in the concentrated rinse composition, when it is employed therein, can be varied between 1.5% and 4.25%.

Inuse, nylon garments are washed in the usual manner and are then rimed in a dilute rinse solution containing two tablespoons full of the foregoing formula to each gallon of water. Adequate brightening and whitening effect is obtained in about four or five minutes rinsing time.

It will be found that the suspended solid particles of 3,7-dianisoylamido dibenzothiophenesulfone-2,8-sulfonic acid will be deposited upon the nylon goods during the rinsing operation and that, after drying, will be held firm by the nylon goods even after repeated washings.

This applicationis a oontinuation-ln-part of application Serial Number 283.518, filed April 21,

1952, now abandoned.

What is claimed/is:

1. A concentrated whitening and brightening rinse composition for nylon goods comprising 0.1% to 6.0% 3,7-dianisoylamido dibenaothiophenesulfone-2,8-sulfonic acid, suspended in an aqueous medium containing at least 20% of tertiary butyl alcohol.

2. A concentrated whitening and brightening rinse composition for nylon goods comprising 0.5% to 1.5% 3,7-dianisoylamido dibenzothiophenesulfone-2,8-sulfonic acid suspended in an aqueous medium containing at least 20% tertiary butyl alcohol.

3. A concentrated whitening and brightening rinse composition for nylon goods comprising 0.1% to 6.0% 3,7-dianisoylamido dibenmthiophenesulfone-2,8-sulfonic acid suspended in an aqueous medium containing at least 20% tertiary butyl alcohol and a small amount of a polyhydric alcohol.

4. A concentrated whitening and brightening rince composition for nylon goods comprising 0.5% to 1.5% 3,7-dianisoylamido dibenzothiophenesulfone-2,8-sulfonic acid suspended in an aqueous medium containing at least 20% tertiary butyl alcohol and 1.5% to 4.25% lycerine.

5. A concentrated whitening and brightening rinse composition for nylon goods having the following formula:

1% ozs. of 3,7-dianisoylamido dibenzothiophenesulfone-2,8-sulfonic acid I 3 lbs. of tertiary butyl alcohol 1 ozs. of glycerine Balance water to give a total of 8 lbs.

PALMER G. HENDRIX.

REFERENCES crrEn The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,415,373 Scalera Feb. 4, 1947 2,515,173 Ackermann July 18. 1950 2,547,910 Hausermann Apr. 3, 1951 2,563,795 Scalera Aug. 7, 1951 2,580,234 Lecher Dec. 25, 1951 OTHER REFERENCES zogfellan-Iridustrial Solvents, 1944-- 205- 

1. A CONCENTRATED WHITENING AND BRIGHTENING RINSE COMPOSITION FOR NYLON GOODS COMPRISING 0.1% TO 6.0% 3,7-DIANISOYLAMIDO DIBENZOTHIOPHENESULFONE-2,8-SULFONIC ACID, SUSPENDED IN AN AQUEOUS MEDIUM CONTAINING AT LEAST 20% OF TERTIARY BUTYL ALCOHOL. 